NIA charge sheets Azhar’s right-hand man, another

Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Nov 15: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has charge sheeted two accused including a right-hand man of Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) chief Masood Azhar, for their plans to disturb peace and communal harmony in Jammu and Kashmir by attacking security forces and hitting other targets.
Muhammad Dilawar Iqbal, a resident of Abbaspur in Pakistan-occupied Jammu Kashmir (PoJK) goes by several aliases including Maaz Khan Kashmiri and Azad Kashmiri and is a close associate of Masood Azhar, the National Investigation Agency said in a statement.
He delivered incendiary speeches to incite youths in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir to conduct terrorist acts, it said.
The NIA has alleged that Dilawar Iqbal indoctrinated and motivated Kupwara-resident Mohammed Ubaid Malik also to join the JeM. Malikhas also been charge sheeted in the case.
The agency has alleged that Dilawar Iqbal was motivating Kashmiri youths as part of a larger conspiracy hatched by proscribed terrorist organisations and their affiliates to carry out terrorist acts and activities in the region.
“Dilawar would incite youth having a militancy background to pursue Jihad by sharing with them inflammatory audio clips and videos as well as images of Maulana Masood Azhar Alvi, showing the latter preaching radical Islam. He would also send videos related to encounters in the Kashmir valley and would provoke the youth to pick up arms,” an NIA spokesperson said.
The agency has been probing the terror conspiracy case since June 21, 2022 (Regular Case 5/2022/NIA/JMU) which it took on suo motu basis. The case pertains to the conspiracy hatched by Pakistan-based terrorist organisations to “unleash violent terrorist attacks in J&K with sticky bombs, IEDs and small arms, etc” to carry out terrorist attacks and violence in the Union Territory.
“It involves radicalization of local youth and mobilization of Over Ground Workers (OGWs) of newly floated terrorist groups, such as The Resistance Front (TRF), United Liberation Front Jammu & Kashmir (ULFJ&K), Mujahideen Gazwat-ul-Hind (MGH), Jammu & Kashmir Freedom Fighters (JKFF), Kashmir Tigers, PAAF and others. These outfits are affiliated to proscribed terrorist outfits like Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), Hizb-ul-Mujahideen (HM), Al-Badr, Al-Qaeda, etc,” the agency has alleged.
It said further investigations in the case are on and the NIA is continuously working to expose and thwart bigger conspiracy of the terrorist organizations to revive terrorism and disturb peace and communal harmony in Jammu and Kashmir.
It may be mentioned here that some Pakistani militants have been trying to radicalize the local youth of Jammu and Kashmir through Social Media and other modes of communications and inciting them to indulge in terrorism. However, alert security agencies have foiled most of such plots by the militants operating from Pakistan and PoJK.